OTISFIELD, MAINE | Seeds of Peace, which brings together children from countries in conflict, begins its 2008 summer program Tuesday at its lakeside camp in this western Maine town.
Attending the first session will be young Egyptians, Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Indians and Pakistanis. They will bunk, eat and play together and take part in discussions about regional conflicts.
The camp’s goal is to get youngsters to interact and understand the viewpoint of those on the opposite side.
Seeds of Peace was founded 15 years by John Wallach, a foreign correspondent who died in 2002. During the first year, 46 Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian children attended the camp. Since then, the total has grown to 4,000, many of whom have reached adulthood and carry with them the Seeds of Peace message of dialogue, reconciliation and understanding.
“We have Seeds clerking in the supreme court of Israel, Seeds who are anchors on news programs. Also, we have Seeds running businesses that are interacting with businesses on the other side of the conflict,” said Bobbie Gottschalk, who helped found the program. “They don’t want to wait until two of them are running their countries. They want to prepare their societies for living in peace.”
Amgad Naguib, an Egyptian who attended camp when it began in 1993, said he learned that he had more in common with moderates, regardless of nationality, than with extremists from his own country.
“I think the fundamental thing about Seeds of Peace is it changes the way you think about people you would have had preconceived notions about,” said Naguib, who is now 29 and working in a Washington, D.C., public relations firm.
Some early Seeds remain active with the organization, working on the staff, raising funds or attending reunions.
Rona Harari, a 27-year-old Israeli graduate student, first went to camp in 1994. She later returned as a program leader and said her experiences with the organization strengthened her convictions.
“I think my way of interpreting the news and the conflict is different than a person who hasn’t interacted with Palestinians,” she said.
The original campers from 1993 include Tamer Nagy Mahmoud, an Egyptian, and Yehoyada Mandeel, an Israeli, both of whom are now involved in the law and want to be involved in politics. Mahmoud is an international corporate lawyer in Washington, D.C., and Mandeel is a law student who will be clerking for a justice on the Israeli supreme court. They reconnected when Mandeel visited Mahmoud in Indiana, where he was attending Earlham College.
Although they had been out of touch for years, they soon were back to arguing politics like old times, Mahmoud recalled. Mandeel believes his experience as a Seed, hearing from Palestinians about the essence of their identity, is something he’ll always carry with him. “There is a very good group, people who take the Seeds of Peace experience in a positive way,” he said, “and I’m sure we will meet again in the future in leadership positions.”